No charges in post-party fracas; husband and wife were arrested

Tuesday

Jun 3, 2014 at 4:13 PM

Citing a minimal chance of conviction, the State Attorney's Office will not file criminal charges against a husband and wife accused of resisting an officer after leaving an Ocala house party in April.

By April WarrenStaff writer

Citing a minimal chance of conviction, the State Attorney's Office will not file criminal charges against a husband and wife accused of resisting an officer after leaving an Ocala house party in April.

The April 6 arrests of Jason Pomales, 28, and wife Stacey Ann, 26, went viral after a video Stacey Ann took of the incident surfaced on the Internet. The video prompted supporters to lash out in posted comments at the arresting deputies from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

“This is just one of the worst incidents I've seen for violation of the First Amendment — the right to watch over our law enforcement officers and peacefully protest what those officers are doing,” the couple's attorney, Christopher Dillingham, said Monday.

According to the arrest report for Jason Pomales, sheriff's deputies Jarrett Leedy, Thomas Singh-Newbanks and Cpl. Lisa Azure responded to a call around 11:30 p.m. on April 5. They went to the 15000 block of Southwest 16th Avenue after receiving a complaint of a large party, where they later found evidence of marijuana.

During the investigation, the deputies began asking partygoers to move cars that were blocking traffic.

According to the report, Jason Pomales emerged from the crowd and told the deputies no one had to listen to them or move the vehicles. He did not comply with the deputies' request to walk away, the report noted.

Deputies told him they were investigating the house party where they believed a cover charge was being collected, and told Jason Pomales to walk away or he would be arrested. He refused and was then arrested, deputies reported.

According to the Sheriff's Office, during transport to the Marion County Jail, Pomales told law enforcement: “You are messing with the wrong guy tonight,” “you are going to be sorry,” “you better be really scared,” and further threatened to report the deputy to Copblock.org, a website that encorages taking video of law enforcement officers making arrests.

After Pomales was put in a patrol car, a crowd began to form. The deputies several times told the group to disperse.

Stacey Ann Pomales, who was videotaping the arrest on a cellphone, began asking why her husband was being arrested. After placing Jason in the back of a patrol car, Azure is heard saying “Who's next? Who's next? ... This camera does not scare us. Who's next to go to jail?”

The report described Stacey Ann Pomales as “yelling and screaming,” though her voice is relatively calm on the video. She also was asked to back away and was later arrested after deputies said she failed to do so.

Before the state filed its final paperwork, Dillingham had submitted motions to dismiss in both cases, citing lack of probable cause.

In Stacey Ann's case, he argued that while deputies told her to move away from the patrol vehicles, they failed to tell her where to stand and every time she stood, she was instructed to move again. She can also be heard on the video instructing other partygoers to move away.

Dillingham also refutes the arrest report claims that Jason Pomales failed to back away. He stated the arrest reports do not note the crowd was violent or that the deputies were in danger.

“More pointedly, the incident report does not state that (the) defendant did anything other than exercise (the) defendant's right to free speech,” Dillingham wrote in his motion.

He accused the deputy of arresting the wife for daring to ask a question as to why her husband was being arrested.

Dillingham repeats many of the same claims in Jason Pomales' motion to dismiss, including that his client was merely attending the party and had no control over the property or events taking place at the home. He also accused the Sheriff's Office of conducting the roadblock illegally.

A hearing on the motions was scheduled to be heard Monday. Instead, the State Attorney's Office filed paperwork on May 28 dismissing the case.

According to sheriff's spokesman Judge Cochran, all patrol members received in-house training specific to a review of this case on how a deputy could handle the incident differently.

Contact April Warren at 867-4065 or april.warren@ocala.com.

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